Little Blessings

I spent the day (Thursday) working at Sandy's house. One thing she said was how she looks for the little blesses in life and appreciates them. We painted several rooms in her house and laid some flooring down. The week started off pretty stressful and a little hectic but these last few days have been amazing. Sandy is a pretty amazing women and meeting her was an enriching experience. One of my favorite times at her house is when we were waiting for Paul to come pick us up. She gave us Mardi Gras beads and showed us several different butterfly cocoons. She also took us to see her un-official ducks and birds. One of them was huge and wagged its tail like a dog! This amused me to no ends while witnessing it. All the while she shared her amazing stories of New Orleans and her life. I would love to spend more time just listening to her stories and learning about random things.

There has been many blessings outside this experience on this trip. We have played hours of NINJA! Its a game where people try to slap each others hands during their turn all the while being frozen in ninja poses. I have also gotten to know many other students that would never had the chance to. Every time one vists a new place or new people, new foods seem to follow! Some foods i had off the top of my head were Jambalaya, duck neck, beignets and spicy peanuts. Another awesome experience was geocaching in the French Quater ( beautiful!) and getting to go on top of a building to get one. Seeing New Orleans from 400 ft off the ground was priceless. We also meet some students from Ohio Northern and it has been great getting to know them all! There is really to many memories and moments to recount on here! Though i didn't get to work on people's houses as much as i desired or expect, the amount i did get to was well worth it. We may only be a page in the life of these women's lives (Sandy's and Betty's) but i know it has been a blessing in my life as well as theirs.

~ Kevin

Bourbon Street after work on Thursday

Thursday was a good day to get things done. I was in the group that went to Betty's group, and we got everything done we wanted to. We dry-walled and installed the bathroom toilet and sink, we ripped out carpet and fixed up the backyard. We finished up the dry-wall and were pleased to find out that in a few weeks another group is coming to help her. Finally all of us felt the satisfaction of accomplishing what we came to do when we saw the smile on her face. She was so happy to have us there, and while all week she thanked us, on Thursday when she saw all of the progress she was so happy it seemed like she was about to cry. She was so grateful, and the look on her face when she saw that she had a liveable bedroom and working electricity made the trip for me. After the work that day, we decided to go back to Bourbon street. We had already been a few times, but we had tickets to see an old time jazz band at Preservation Hal. They were pretty good, and a group of us wound up a few shops down at Fritzels, another jazz bar that was amazing. Fritzels was my favorite, they played upbeat music from the 1920's. I would definitely enjoy coming back, it was so much fun! The night ended there for most people, but not all :) Some of us went to Raising Cane's, which is in Ohio, but always a good experience. I talked to some people I hadn't got a chance to know really well throughout the trip at Cane's, it was a lot of fun. Now we're about to leave and already it's a full day. Some of us went back to the French Quarter to do some last minute shopping. Others, including me, went with Natasha to Target. We all had a good time, just shopping and wandering around. We all went to eat after Target, and now we're sitting in the church's gym, discussing random topics and resting before our big drive. Having fun :)

Flood Water and Politics

Today we split up in the vans and our group went through the Lower 9th Ward, which was really sad. It’s crazy to see all the houses that were still so damaged even though it’s been five years. It’s especially strange to see when many of the new houses they are building are so new and modern looking; they are built up off the ground to prevent future flooding and they’re so nice they stand out and look pretty out of place there.

We also checked out the rebuilt flood wall; the original one gave-away which is why the 9th Ward was so damaged. We were told that these walls are supposed to be able to handle up to a category 4 storm, but anything stronger than that and the walls will break again. From talking to different people, some people things it’s a result from a lack of funding and others say it’s because of faulty construction to begin with. I don’t know which has more truth to it or if it’s a combination of both reasons, but I find it strange that it’s common knowledge that the walls could break again if there’s another storm like Katrina and yet it seems like nothing is being done about it.

On the topic of damaged houses, there’s still a lot of houses everywhere that have spray-paint still on them where they were marked after they were checked for survivors. It’s very sad and haunting to see the reminders everywhere of how many houses were effected and how widespread the damage from Katrina really was.

Anyway, after we went to the 9th Ward we went to a new work site, where we met Sandy. She’s an older woman who is still working on getting her house back to a more normal state. She was really welcoming and very happy to have us there to help. We painted a few rooms for her and will be going back tomorrow to finish panting and replacing some flooring. Sandy was extremely open and willing to tell us her story, which was really interesting and new for me because I it was the first house I’ve worked on where I was able to meet who I was helping.

On Monday I helped at a house where the owners are currently living in Texas and yesterday I didn’t get to talk to the house owner much because she was in and out, so I enjoyed meeting Sandy today and hearing parts of her story. Something that really struck me was that her husband died two years after the floor so now she’s not only going through all the devastation of Katrina, but she is going through it without her husband in the house that they lived in together for most of their lives. Also, she was telling us about how excited she was because her lights were finally installed yesterday or the day before and her electricity was working; she is finally using lights that aren’t run from extension cords for the first time since 2005 when she evacuated for the hurricane.

I thought today was a very positive experience after getting to meet Sandy and talked to her about what she’s been through and how happy she is that things are moving along with her house. She’s so grateful for everything people have done for her and so struck that strangers come so far during their free time to help her; she was a very encouraging person to talk to.

One of the last things she said to us was that she works hard to stay happy, but she has to deal with all of this in a way she can live with so she has to always try to be happy. I think this is definitely a “take home” point because I know there’s a lot of little things that I get upset over that really aren’t anything in the big picture of things, so I hope that even after I go home I can take a lesson with me from this trip.

Amanda R.

A Unfortunate Reality

This morning, we broke up into groups and our group went to go see the Lower Ninth Ward where some of the worst damage was done. It was really sad to see all the damage that was done by Katrina and how much work still needs to be done. There were some new houses built (apparently some funded by Brad Pitt), and they were really interesting and modern, but they definitely didn’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. While we were there, we went to go check out the floodwall up close, and we took some great pictures.

We went to get some local cuisine for lunch, but we were really distracted by a giant dead cockroach we found near the bathroom.

After lunch, we went to our new worksite and met the homeowner, Sandy. She was a really amazing lady who had a lot of great stories to share with us. We painted two rooms of the main floor of the house, and we’re also going to be working on flooring in the house as well.

I felt really positive about the whole experience, because I felt like we were able to help someone who really deserved it. It was so good to see how happy she was that we were able to help in restoring her home. Today was the first time on the trip where I really felt like we were able to make a difference.

After we were done at Sandy’s, we went back to the church for dinner and some group activities. We all shared with each other as a group positive and negative experiences we’ve had on the trip so far, and I think it was another good bonding experience for us. I’m really excited for tomorrow to be able to go back and work on Sandy’s house some more.

-Nicole

Welcome to NOLA

Today, we all broke up into separate groups to do different work. My group stayed back at the church to do some cleaning to help the people who are nice enough to host us here. We cleaned for about two hours, and then we had the rest of the day to relax.

Unfortunately, there’s not really too much to do here, so we had to make our own fun, which included putting together children’s puzzles and other things of that nature. We also spent a great portion of the day texting the people who were actually out at the work sites. We were happy to see them when they got back. Sara and I started what I deemed a “big kid’s puzzle”, which is now being continued by everyone in the group.

We ate dinner here and then spent the rest of the evening in the French Quarter and spent some time on Bourbon Street. It was a really great time and spent the night bonding together. I feel like it was one of those breakthrough moments for the group where we all came together. It was quite magical.

-Nicole

Recovery is a MUST

New Orleans is slowly recovering, but there is still a lot to be done. The organization we are working through is the United Methodist Committee on Relief. They have worked for five years through governmental grants and through church donations. They will probably end their efforts in December.

The remaining work will continue with other relief agencies and through local agencies that existed before Hurricane Katrina.

Heidelberg's students are wonderful and awesome.. They work hard. They are considerate of each other.

We've worked on three houses--one has not been touched since the hurricane. The owner, a widow, had 18 inches of water in her home for a short period. So, she was not as badly affected as many. But, her home is so full of items, that she has not been able to tackle the problem of pulling out items and rehabilitating the house. We've torn out drywall in the hallway, a bedroom and laundry room. The owner is elated.

Another house is a home where two different families live, both who have
deaf people in their families. They were swindled out of 27,000 dollars the year after the hurricane. Now their home is almost complete.
The other home is getting ceramic tile and drywall. I don't know much about that family.

Anyway,

We are having a great time! We are going into the French Quarter tonight.


Paul Sittason Stark

Betty: The A & E special

Today one of the groups from Heidelberg worked on Betty's house. Betty's house has not been touched in 5 years, since hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. When we entered the house it was packed full of junk from the floor to the ceiling. This woman was obviously a pack rat. She told us nothing was allowed to be thrown out without her approval. Believe me there was plenty of trash to throw out! Betty must have had about twenty cats at one time because that is all we could smell was mold and cats. This house was disgusting. Along with the nasty smells there was garbage all over the house and backyard. You could definitely tell that no one had touched this place literally in five years.

Throughout the process of cleaning out the house we only had pathways between the junk to maneuver everything out of the house. I have never seen so many newspapers and as seen on TV junk in my life. Overall we spent about five hours cleaning out and working on the house. In those five hours we ripped out all the drywall in the hallways from the floor to about waist high. We also cleaned out the backyard.

I feel like even though there is a lot to help Betty with still, we accomplished a lot today and I think that Betty is grateful for all we did.

<3--b